A Chandra Virgo cluster survey of spiral galaxies : I. Introduction to the survey and a new ULX sample

R. Soria, M. Kolehmainen, A. W. Graham, D. A. Swartz, M. Yukita, C. Motch, Thomas H. Jarrett, J. C. A. Miller-Jones, R. M. Plotkin, T. J. MacCarone, L. Ferrarese, A. Guest, A. Lançon

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15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present an analysis of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) population in 75 Virgo cluster late-Type galaxies, including all those with a star formation rate >1 M yr-1 and a representative sample of the less star forming ones. This study is based on 110 observations obtained over 20 yr with the Chandra X-ray Observatory Advanced Camera for Imaging Spectroscopy. As part of a Large Chandra Program, new observations were obtained for 52 of these 75 galaxies. The data are complete to a sensitivity of ≈1039 erg s-1, with a typical detection limit of ≈3 x 1038 erg s-1 for the majority of the sources. The catalogue contains about 80 ULXs (0.3-10 keV luminosity >1039 erg s-1), and provides their location, observed flux, de-Absorbed luminosity, and (for the 25 most luminous ones) simple X-ray spectral properties. We discuss the ULX luminosity function in relation to the mass and star formation rate of the sample galaxies. We show that recent models of low-mass plus high-mass X-ray binary populations (scaling with stellar mass and star formation rate, respectively) are mostly consistent with our observational results. We tentatively identify the most luminous X-ray source in the sample (a source in IC 3322A with LX ≈ 6 x 1040 erg s-1) as a recent supernova or its young remnant. The properties of the sample galaxies (morphologies, stellar masses, star formation rates, total X-ray luminosities from their point-source population) are also summarized.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3284-3311
Number of pages28
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume512
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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